India vs Pakistan LIVE: T20 World Cup final score, result and reaction today

News from the middle in Dubai, and the coin has come up the way of Babar Azam - he’s chosen to have first use of the surface.

Confirmed teams and toss news is not far away at all in Dubai, but let’s first check in on events in Sharjah, where Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have been playing out a proper doozy.

It’s been fierce and fiery at times in oppressive heat but the cricket has been outstanding, Mushiqur Rahim’s clean middle-order hitting first powering Bangladesh to a strong total of 171-4. An early double strike from Shakib Al Hasan looked to have then knocked Sri Lanka back but Charith Asalanka and Bhanuka Rajapaksa have played a pair of genuine gems on a slightly friendlier surface than we have become accustomed to on the postage stamp ground at Sharjah. It looks like Sri Lanka are going to see that chase home - they need nine from the last two overs. We’ll wrap that up shortly.

Pakistan have (very helpfully) narrowed their 15 down to 12 as a matchday squad, which means there is just one name to omit from a very able dozen. That is all but certain to be a middle order batter - 39-year-old Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez, two years his senior, continue to do just about enough to keep themselves in the picture and may displace the explosive Haider Ali, who is a less natural fit at four or five.

Zippy left-arm seamer Imad Wasim could have a key role in the powerplay against a right-hander heavy Indian top order, while Shadab Khan is a true new wave T20 cricketer, dynamite in the field and a developing, flexible force with the bat who can fulfill a variety of roles, in addition to being the side’s key leg-spin option. Pakistan should bat deep, too - Hasan Ali can give it a proper whack at number nine.

Possible Pakistan XI: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf.

Such is the time between this tournament and the 2016 World T20 that India have had time to introduce, thrive with, and then abandon entire white-ball strategies. Out after that tournament went Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, dismissed as limited finger-spinners as an Indian public yearned for mystery and variety. In came Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, who whirled and twirled with cleverly flicked wrists as India out-foxed opponents with balls spinning both ways through the crucial middle overs.

But as the pair lost form and T20 again evolved, opposition began to sit back on the leg-spinners loop, employing spin hitters through the middle to exploit them and beginning to force India to alter their plans. Out, then, before this tournament the pair have gone at varying speeds, Yadav now unable to even get a gig at Kolkata Knight Riders; Chahal still starring domestically but out of the picture for this tournament.

Plus ca change - leading their spin attack, then, will be...Jadeja and Ashwin. Possibly. The duo’s returns are the product of hard work to evolve - the former has emerged as a pre-eminent finishing force with the bat and developed his left-arm darts to be a cannier powerplay bowler, while the latter has added more mystery to his own repertoire - but they are not certainties to combine, with Rahul Chahar’s slightly quicker leg-breaks and rising star Varun Chakravarthy’s front-of-the-hand baffledom equally likely to form part of what could be a very strong bowling attack.

The spin question is the most prominent in the mind ahead of Ravi Shastri’s first selection of the tournament, with Suryakumar Yadav’s impressive form likely to earn him the nod in the middle order ahead of IPL teammate Ishan Kishan. Shardul Thakur suits these pitches so he and Bhuvneshwar Kumar may just edge out Mohammed Shami in support of the brilliant Jasprit Bumrah.

Possible India XI: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy.

It would be atypical for Pakistan to arrive at major tournament’s eve without a dose of off-field chaos and a leadership reshuffling behind-the-scenes have meant they have rounded the final fences true to form. Out in the final weeks before the competition Misbah-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis, with a pair of fellow Pakistan greats to replace them in the interim: head coach Saqlain Mushtaq and bowling coach Abdul Razzaq will be supported by Matthew Hayden and Vernon Philander for a dose of nous from outside of the group.

On the field, however, this is a largely settled side who will relish the chance to test themselves against a side they so seldom play. In Babar Azam they have a true titan of modern batting, and Shaheen Shah Afridi is perhaps the world’s finest left-arm seamer. Supported by a mix of newer faces and wise old heads, on surfaces that will be ultra-familiar, a side that can save its best for major tournaments may just go deep into this competition.

It is a mild curiosity that a side that has become so synonymous with T20 cricket have a reasonably disappointing record at it’s major tournament. The IPL’s epoch-defining innovation arrived after India’s sole World T20 triumph, in 2007, and they have reached the final only once since.

Yet they do rank as the favourites for this competition, not least for the fact that the entirety of their squad come fresh from the dizzying, dazzling domestic behemoth on these very same pitches. Indian cricket has developed into a fearsome beast of rounded cricketers in ever mould, producing some of the world’s fiercest hitters and fastest bowlers.

That is not to say that India enter this tournament without questions, as we will come to, and there is a sense that India’s place as this format’s super-power will only be truly defined if they secure victory on November 14. The pressure of the weight of the expectations of more than one billion people’s will rest heavy on the shoulders of a fine side but Virat Kohli’s men rarely appear truly encumbered.

Geopolitical tensions dictate that these two do no longer meet outside of occasions like these, so this is an encounter that must be savoured, mattering hugely to hundreds of millions of people in two proud nations for whom this is a sport to worship. In a tournament where both may consider themselves on welcoming ground - Pakistan in their adopted cricketing homestead, India as ostensible hosts - this is a meeting of genuine novelty between two sets of players who, rarely for T20 cricket, do not often encounter one another.

The Dubai International Cricket Stadium is our venue for one of sport’s great grudge matches - it’s India vs Pakistan and the first ball is an hour away...

India are taking on Pakistan in a mouth-watering opener to their Super 12 campaigns at the T20 World Cup in Dubai. Such is the strength of the rivalry that the two nations rarely meet outside of official tournaments and have not played in any format since they faced off in Manchester during the 2019 World Cup, where India won a rain-affected match.

India are the favourites to win Group 2, which also contains New Zealand, Namibia, Afghanistan and Scotland, with the latter two meeting tomorrow in Sharjah, and the Indians are arguably the favourites for the trophy itself. But Pakistan are always dangerous and unpredictable, with enough firepower to beat anyone on their day.

Virat Kohli will stand down as T20 captain after the tournament but remains the player to stop and he will come in at No3 behind India openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami will carry plenty of threat with the ball in hand. Pakistan will rely on the batting brilliance of Babar Azam, the world’s No2 ranked T20 batter, while Mohammad Rizwan also offers the potential for big, fast runs.